


Metempsychosis

by Savvi93



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Drama, M/M, Romance, kpop, layhun - Freeform, sexing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-11
Updated: 2015-10-13
Packaged: 2018-04-25 22:30:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4979047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Savvi93/pseuds/Savvi93
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Absolution falls for Betrayal, but Judas will not be defeated. </p><p>He can never forget, never stop, he will have Absolution.</p><p>Protect the Lemniscate.</p><p>Find Betrayal.</p><p>Stop Judas.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>-----</p><p>Zhang Yixing had never really had to worry. His head was always in the clouds and he trusted his feet to keep him rooted to the ground. He was an artist at heart, with a passion for music, he saw the world through a permanent set of rose colored glasses. Until Oh Sehun shows up in his life, then the roses start to wilt, the colors start to dull, and the music starts to die, but something deep inside Yixing seems to be waking up for the first time. Sehun seems to know exactly what's going on and he's waiting patiently, watching Yixing from around every corner, in every shadow, and every crevice of his mind. Yixing can't escape him, and he can't escape himself, the past is determined to haunt him. He struggles to grasp on to memories, photographs too faded and overexposed. He's running out of time if he doesn't remember soon, it will be too late. </p><p>Sehun is the catalyst, and his kiss is the trigger.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“With verb conjugation memorize which ones are irregular, we’ll be going over them again before the test on Thursday.”

“Haven’t we gone over irregular verbs already?” Jongdae stage whispered, leaning over and glancing at Yixing’s notebook, squinting to try to make his chicken scratch legible.

“Only some of them, apparently there are more.” Yixing whispered back, keeping his eyes on the teacher to feign interest in case she looked their way.

Languages had never been his favorite subject, he’d learned Chinese and Korean already he didn’t understand why he needed English drilled into his head as well. The language didn’t even make sense, whoever created it had to have been more high than Chanyeol during finals week last year.

“More? Seriously? Is the entire language just irregular? What’s the point of having conjugation rules at all?” Jongdae groaned, leaning back in his seat and ruffling up his already messy black hair, looking haggard and about as enthused with what he was learning as Yixing felt.

“It could be some form of advanced torture method?” Yixing quipped, smiling a little to himself and trying to look innocent when the teacher glanced his way. He quickly scribbled something down on his notebook, but he didn’t even know what language it was in let alone the word. He was just waiting for those last few seconds to count down until –

11:15 He was finally free. The first one to stand up he ignored the teacher’s obvious annoyance as he shoved his notebook and textbooks into his bag wincing a little at he accidentally crushed his poor notebook in the process. He would probably regret that next class, but he couldn’t bring himself to fix it as he slung the bag over his shoulder.

“Where are you thinking for lunch?” Yixing asked his best friend, he’d skipped breakfast that morning and his stomach was not happy with him at all. It had been complaining furiously the entire class, which didn’t make concentrating on English any easier. As he had come to learn, English only made sense when he was drunk.

“I was gonna hit the café and swipe a kimbap. We’re supposed to meet up with Minseok in the art building courtyard remember?” Jongdae reminded him with an amused curl of his lips as he finished packing his bag. “We made those plans like an hour ago, how did you manage to forget already?

“Did we?” Yixing asked, tipping his head to the side and letting his long brown bangs fall out of his eyes. He vaguely remembered talking to Minseok that morning, but he’d been preoccupied for some reason. He was feeling restless lately, it made it harder than usual to pay attention and commit to memory what was happening right in front of him.

Jongdae rolled his eyes and sighed, grabbing Yixing’s wrist and leading him along like he didn’t trust Yixing to just follow him on his own. Though, Yixing figured, it was probably a valid fear. Yixing had managed to wander away more than once only to end up somewhere he’d never been before trying to figure out where the sense of nostalgia was coming from. It always ended in a giant treasure hunt as Yixing tried to explain where he was and Jongdae tried to pinpoint his location.

“What is up with you lately anyway?” Jongdae asked curiously, once they were out into the hallway. He still had his hand around Yixing’s wrist and somehow it was comforting rather than restricting. An anchor holding Yixing down and keeping him from getting lost in the expanse of his own mind.

“Hm?” Yixing blinked a few times and smiled at Jongdae, his brain working to figure out what he had just said so he could form a proper response. Oh yes, he was being spacey again, he should have known Jongdae would notice, he’s always been good and picking up on stuff like that. “I don’t know. I just feel… anxious. I think.”

“Anxious? Why? Mid-terms aren’t for another two weeks,” Jongdae pointed out with a small frown, tugging Yixing to walk around a group that had decided to stop in the middle of the hallway and discuss the deeper meaning of their chemistry homework.

Pushing through the doors they stumbled out onto the side walk, or well, Yixing stumbled and Jongdae almost fell trying to steady him and they ended up chest to chest with Jongdae looking highly amused. “We really need to stop meeting like this,” He teased, coaxing a slightly breathless laugh from Yixing as he straightened up and tried to smooth the wrinkles out of his shirt from where Jongdae had grabbed him.

“I don’t know what I’m anxious about,” Yixing admitted with a sigh, grateful for the cool autumn breeze on his heated cheeks. He always got a little embarrassed whenever he realized how inept he was being, he was going to have to see a doctor or something, he shouldn’t lose touch with reality so easily. “I just feel like, like something big is about to happen. Or like I’m late to something important.”

“Well, its Monday, what do you usually have on Monday other than classes?” Jongdae asked, carefully steering Yixing around an uneven patch of concrete so he wouldn’t trip though he still managed to stumble a little anyway from sheer in\coordination.

“I have…” Yixing frowned when he started to draw a blank, pulling out his phone and tapping in his password to bring up his daily planner. “Oh, a job interview today at… 11:20.”

“It’s 11:25.” Jongdae pointed out in amused, stopping to glance at the planner too, “It’s at the main library? We’re not far, you can still show up.”

“B-but I’m late!” Yixing explained, tucking his phone back into his pocket and sighing heavily. He’d really wanted that job too, it seemed like a nice, easy job, that would allow him to get homework done but still earn money.

“You’re perpetually late,” Jongdae reminded him drily, rolling his eyes and giving Yixing a gentle push towards the giant glass wall building they could see just across the small street. “Just go, hurry.”

Yixing nodded and bit his lip, turning to hurry towards the street to cut across. “Yixing,” Jongdae called after him, and Yixing stopped to glance back at him, “Count to five before you cross the street.”

Frowning in confusion Yixing nodded and turned back to the road, “One, two, three-” a small black sedan sped past him, the bass beat momentarily shaking the sidewalk as it went by, the driver busy with a phone in his hand. Slightly surprised Yixing, went to glance back to find Jongdae but his friend was already gone, probably off to grab that kimbap and find Minseok.

Smiling a little to himself he stepped off the sidewalk and made his way across the street, not even remembering to look for more cars until his feet hit the grass on the other side. Trying to shake himself out of his reverie he headed towards the main doors of the library, pulling out his phone again to figure out where the interview was supposed to be.

“Third floor information desk?” Yixing read aloud, frowning a little to himself. He didn’t know the library had a third floor, let alone an information desk. Walking inside he made a beeline for the elevators, the chatter of students and the smell of coffee soothing to his senses. It was like a security blanket of white noise and he let it envelope him until the ding of the elevator and the whoosh of the doors sliding open reminded him he was supposed to be doing something.

He stepped into the elevator, hugging the wall to make room for the person who walked in after him, “Which floor?” He asked as he hit the big three button and watched it light up under his finger. When he was answered with silence he turned around to address the person, only to find the elevator completely empty. “What?” He mumbled, shaking his head in confusion. He had seen someone walk in behind him, had heard the heavy footsteps against the metal floor of the elevator, he had felt the pressure of an arm brushing his book bag.

He didn’t remember them leaving, but before his muddled brain could work out an explanation the elevator stopped and the doors dinged open, once again the sound of chatter rushed over him but this time it was much more hushed. Groups of students were huddled around desks with dry erase boards build in to them. Many more were sitting at the tables along the glass walls, computers, tablets, and phones taking the place of textbooks and calculators as they worked on homework or chatted on skype.

It was a comforting sort of mundane that had Yixing smiling as he made his way towards the large sign reading ‘information desk’. There was already two people sitting at the desk, one was a pretty, slender, boy with more style in his pinky than Yixing had ever had in his entire life. He was the personification of chic, and Yixing felt a little self-conscious just looking at him. The other boy looked older, with round glasses perched on his nose and he was wearing a very professional looking shirt and tie with black slacks. He had a serious aura surrounding him and he was frowning as he looked at his computer.

“Um,” Yixing stepped forward to ask who he was supposed to be meeting with, managing to trip over nothing and just barely catching himself on the edge of the L shaped desk in front of him, but not before knocking over a stack of brightly colored flyers and showering the desk and floor with them.

“Aw dammit, I just got those picked up!” The stylish boy with short brown hair and perfectly winged eye linger slowly stood up, starting to gather up the papers on his side of the desk. Not even looking up at Yixing as he grumbled expletives under his breath.

“I-I’m sorry.” Yixing mumbled, flushing in embarrassment as he quickly bent down to try to help pick up the mess, only for his book bag to violently bump the desk and knock over a small cup of pens.

“You know what? Stop helping.” The boy snapped, his tone didn’t sound nearly as angry as his face looked but Yixing still felt the intense desire to run away. If he wasn’t so convinced he would trip and hurt himself trying, he probably would have. Oh the curse of being uncoordinated.

“I’m sorry…” Yixing said again, hanging his head and trying not to fidget too much, he could feel both pairs of eyes on him now and it made him feel horribly uncomfortable and embarrassed, “I’m uhh late.” He mumbled by way of explanation, making a very conscious effort not to start chewing on his lip. He’d only just convinced the last scab to heal and he was pretty sure his lip was going to be scarred forever.

“Late?” The other boy spoke this time, his tone was far gentler and a little deeper too. It reminded Yixing of music somehow, the soft timbre to it and the way it so naturally rose and fell even with that single syllable. “Oh, you must be Yixing.”

Startled Yixing lifted his head, his eyes wide with confusion, flickering to the screen he saw his student information pulled up and the boy was carefully looking over. “H-how?”

“I’m Junmyeon, the one conducting your interview today,” He explained, looking at Yixing this time and offering him a small, friendly, smile that eased the burn on Yixing’s cheeks and coaxed an answering one of his own to shyly curl his lips. “I’m glad you’re here, I was starting to worry you weren’t going to show.”

“I-I’m sorry, I forgot I had an interview today,” Yixing admitted, brushing his too long bangs out of his face to give his nervous hands something to do. He’d been unbuttoning his flannel shirt and even though he had a white tank top underneath some part of his brain, that sounded an awful lot like Jongdae, told him he probably shouldn’t be stripping if he was trying to get the job.

The other boy, his name tag read ‘Baekhyun’, scoffed and rolled his eyes as he gingerly started setting the papers back in a neat little stack like he was afraid a sudden gust would come out of nowhere and scatter them all over again.

“That’s okay, you’re not too late.” Junmyeon assured him, standing up his chair squeaking horribly as the wheels refused to roll correctly against the tile floor and it caused all three of them to wince at the sound. “If you’ll come with me, the interview room is this way.”

Yixing bobbed his head in a nod, fiddling with his book bag strap now as he waiting for Junmyeon to step around the desk and lead him through a door way and into another section of the library. There were less students here, only a few sprinkled around studying by their lonesome, and a kid near the back corner who had pulled two armchairs together to form a makeshift bed.

They turned after that, right, or maybe left, Yixing couldn’t remember which direction they had gone but they were in another room with more desks and chairs and book shelves but only one student that Yixing could see. He was standing by a shelf with a thick biology book in his hand, he glanced up when they walked in and for a split second Yixing’s eyes met his.

The boy’s expression was completely blank; strands of dark bangs fell into his eyes but not enough to obscure them completely from view. For a moment his gazed followed them as they walked by, until the click of a door opening distracted Yixing pulling his attention back to Junmyeon who was in the middle of a sentence, “-in here. So we can do the interview here if that’s all right with you?”

Blinking the confusion from his eyes and trying to shake the cloudy feeling in his head he nodded, not even entirely sure what he was agreeing to. He tried to sneak one last glance back at the boy as Junmyeon went to close the door, but the room outside was completely empty, the boy and the biology book nowhere in sight.

“You don’t talk much do you?” Junmeon asked in amusement as he pulled out a chair for Yixing and sat down on the other side of the only desk in the room. It looked like a little quiet study room for group projects, a dry erase board took up two whole walls, there was a projector screen on another wall, and small desk to hook up a laptop in the corner. Slowly Yixing set his book bag down and sank into the chair offered to him, having the decency to flush in embarrassment as he realized he’d majorly spaced out again.

“I’m s-sorry, I get distracted easily,” Yixing admitted, offering a smile that was both apologetic and embarrassed with a hint of shy uncertainty keeping it from really lighting up his features or showing off his dimples.

“It’s alright, but if you don’t mind me asking, why did you apply for a desk job at the library?” Junmyeon set a folder down in front of himself and pulled out a piece of paper, slipping the pen out of his shirt pocket and clicking it so he could write down Yixing’s name and student ID number in elegant script like writing that somehow suited his melodic voice and his gentle and classically handsome looks.

“I umm, I don’t know,” Yixing admitted after trying to think up a plausible lie, but he wasn’t Jongdae and his mind supplied him with nothing helpful. “I wanted a job, but I’m not very coordinated. I’m not good at fast-paced environments, so I thought maybe a library job would be safe,” He tried to explain his reasoning, but he realized as he spoke that he probably just dug his own grave if he hadn’t already. He had no real qualifying skills, and he really was hopeless at multi-tasking or trying to do anything in a rush. He’d once forgotten to put on underwear because he’d been running late for school; he arrived with his shirt on backwards, no undershirt, unbrushed hair, and his shoes on the wrong feet. Jongdae didn’t stop laughing at him for the rest of the week.

To his surprise though, Junmyeon’s smile just softened and he nodded in understanding, “Not everyone is good at everything,” He soothed, maybe there was some sign of distress on Yixing’s face because Junmyeon seemed worried, like he was trying to console a child on the verge of tears. Jongdae had always said his face was an open book; it seemed everyone could read Yixing except Yixing himself. “This job is pretty easy, and it’s slow so you won’t have to worry about too much pressure. We’ll train you, and you’re never expected to work a shift by yourself. There will always either be a staff member, or another student at the desk with you.”

Dumbly Yixing could only nod, he felt like he was missing something obvious and he wracked his brain to try to figure out what, but nothing was forthcoming and in the end he sighed internally and let it go, he’d been feeling this tense restless anxiety for too long now to try to pin it down to any singular point in the present time.

“Do you have any prior work experience? And do you know how to use a computer? Basis knowledge of Microsoft Office?” Junmyeon asked, running through a check list on the piece of paper he had pulled out earlier, glancing up at Yixing to confirm or deny.

“Uh, no work experience. I can use a computer fairly well, and Microsoft Office too,” Yixing answered, deciding a little bit of white lying, just to blur the truth enough to make him seem competent wouldn’t hurt. It wasn’t that he hadn’t worked before, he just didn’t have any good work experience up to this point. Only jobs he’d been fired from in the first week for anything from breaking too many plates, not talking to customers, and even once for walking out in the middle of his shift and somehow ending up in the park across town. He didn’t think Junmyeon needed to hear about those, Yixing actually wanted this job it was the only job on the campus job search page that he had any hope of keeping longer than a couple of days.

“Okay, wonderful. Your availability is exactly what we need, we’d like to get you started right away and see how you fit in if that’s alright?” Junmyeon asked, and it took Yixing’s brain several lagging seconds to realize that he was actually being offered a job. And even after the words sank in it took him a while longer before he accepted them and by then Junmyeon was looking at him with amused expectation that had Yixing ducking his head and blushing again.

“Th-that sounds perfect, thank you so much,” Yixing said with honest sincerity lacing each word. Junmyeon had every reason to turn him away in the first couple of seconds, no, before he had even shown up, and he hadn’t. He’d given him a chance and that warmed Yixing inside like a cup of hot tea and honey, soothing and blissful.

“Good, let’s go back to the front desk. I’ll send you an email to let you know when your orientation starts sometime today,” Junmyeon explained, sliding the paper back into the folder and standing up. He waited for Yixing to pick his book bag back up and follow him before he opened the door and lead the way back to the front desk glancing back at Yixing every so often presumably to make sure he was still there and though it was embarrassing Yixing was grateful. He would have been lost trying to find his way back on his own.

“Hey Baekhyun, can you grab one of those welcome packets for the new hires?” He asked as he approached the desk, setting his folder down and sliding back into his chair, wincing as the wheels squealed in protest to the movement.

“What? Him? Really?” Baekhyun raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow and looked at Yixing with blatant disbelief, but he was already pulling out one of the packets and handing it across the desk.

“We hired you didn’t we?” Junmyeon teased, reaching over to ruffle Baekhyun’s hair who squawked in protest and whipped out a hand mirror from his back pocket to painstakingly re-arrange each displaced hair.

Yixing smiled a little at the playfulness, it reminded him of Jongdae and Minseok. A small little family created by the mutual affection of two people who had come to love each other for no reason other than because their personalities just clicked.

“Oh hey, someone dropped this off at the desk while you were gone. I don’t feel like putting it back,” Baekhyun said as he picked up a rather large text book and handed it to Junmyeon, turning back to his computer and pulling up a screen that looked a lot like facebook.

Junmyeon rolled his eyes but stood back up, being careful not to actually move the chair this time and he smiled at Yixing, “Come on, I’ll show you how to use call numbers to put books back,” He said, handing Yixing the text book and he nearly dropped it before his brain caught up with what his arms were trying to do and he secured the book against his chest. Curiously he looked down at it and his eyes widened in surprise, it was a biology book.

Junmyeon lead Yixing down a very familiar route, rattling off numbers and how they coordinated with different sections of the library. It probably made sense but Yixing wasn’t listening, he was following on auto pilot as his mind raced back to the memory of the boy he’d seen just before the interview. The one with the unreadable face and the dark eyes. It stirred a chill in Yixing and unsettled him, his nerves spiking and his hands trembled where they gripped the edges of the book tightly.

“Here it is, it goes right there,” Junmyeon stopped and was pointing to an obvious empty space in a small row of books, all of them were biology related and big enough to make Yixing’s back ache. The one he was holding fit snuggly in between the others in the series and he crouched down to slide it into the space when something fell out of the book and fluttered to the floor. Frowning a little Yixing placed the book on the shelf and reached down to grab whatever had fallen, realizing as he touched it that he was an old polaroid type photograph.

Slowly he picked it up and flipped it over. The photo was faded, it looked like it had been in the sun for too long and had been stained by something spilled on the corner a long time ago. The picture showed a very familiar boy with dark eyes scrunched into half-moons from the wide smile on his face, his arm was wrapped around another boy that made Yixing’s heart seize in his chest. The skinny frame, the too long face, and the dimples, the other boy in the photo was himself.

“That’s so weird,” Junmyeon murmured, glancing down over Yixing’s shoulder to see what he was looking at, “I wonder why someone put a blank photo in there?”


	2. Chapter 2

Yixing looked down at the photograph in his hand, staring at it so hard he ran into several students as he blindly made his way in what he hoped was the general direction of the art building. Junmyeon had wanted to throw the photo away but Yixing had refused to relinquish his hold on it, stumbling through some excuse about his friend being an art major and being able to use it in a project or something. In retrospect he didn’t know where that lie had come from, or even if Junmyeon had believed it, but he had let Yixing keep the photo and that’s all that mattered.

“Would you watch where you’re walking?” A rude voiced snapped, Yixing lifted his head and he blinked in confusion, looking around to try to figure out where he was. It looked like the center of campus, which meant he’d already passed the art building. Sighing softly to himself and shaking his head he turned around, completely ignoring the fuming man in the sports jacket as he retraced his steps.

The art building was a museumesque structure, wide rooms and tall ceilings with art pieces covering almost every available inch. There were several rooms dedicated to graduating seniors where they could make their mark on a tile before they left to pursue bigger and better things. Sculptures were scattered around the floor and Yixing had to focus a lot harder to keep from running into any of them. He knew from experience the big brass statues left bruises visible and tender for days.

“Yixing! There you are, I was just coming to search for you,” Jongdae’s voice boomed and echoed off the walls, making Yixing slightly dizzy as he turned towards the sound. He couldn’t help but smile as his gaze landed on his best friend, that familiar easy grin that was just shy of a smirk, and sauntering walk like he owned the world and he was comfortable with that.

“I’m sorry, I got lost in my head again,” Yixing admitted, blushing a little at the laugh Jongdae responded with. Really, Yixing knew he was the only one who could get lost on a campus he’d been attending going on two years now.

“I figured, I told Minseok we should have gone to the library to wait for your interview to end but he insisted he was too busy with his project to leave,” Jongdae explained with a shrug, reaching Yixing and slinging his arm around his waist just under his book bag. “So, how did it go?”

“Umm, well, I got the job,” Yixing admitted, still blushing and stuttering a little bit as Jongdae’s arm settled a little too low for him not to notice. He wasn’t attracted to his best friend, not really, he was just very awkward and not good with people or interacting and he tended to fixate on things and blow them out of proportion until- a crinkling sound drew him out of his thoughts and he looked down at his hands, seeing the strange polaroid mangled in his too tight grasp. Quickly he released the tension his hands and arms, trying in vain to smooth out the picture only to quickly flip it over with a look of confusion.

The photo was gone, the polaroid was completely blank. Even the stain on the corner that had ruined nearly half the photo was gone.

“What’s that?” Jongdae asked curiously, snatching the picture away with his free hand and flipping it this way and that, holding it up to the light and frowning a little bit, “You’re collecting trash now, Xing?” He looked amused as he handed it back, steering Yixing into a different room, a small class room with abstract paintings covering the walls. It was almost empty save for Minseok who had giant sketchpad perched on his lap and his lunch spread out on the table beside him. He was furiously working on a portrait of some, muttering to himself and viciously erasing every few seconds, he barely spared them a glance as they entered the room.

“It’s not trash,” Yixing mumbled defensively, still horribly confused. He had been staring at the picture the entire walk from the library; he knew it had been there. But now, the picture was entirely blank. He couldn’t have imagined it, could he? Sighing Yixing stuffed the photo into the side pocket of his book bag to worry about later, setting the bag in an empty chair, and going to sit down next to Jongdae and smiling gratefully when he slid a small plastic tray with neatly cut kimbap over to him.

“I knew you’d forget to grab lunch at the library café,” He said by way of explanation, his own kimbap was already gone and Minseok’s was half eaten as he was entirely too absorbed in his sketch to realize food still existed.

“I’m sorry, I’m always such a burden,” Yixing sighed heavily and hung his head, picking up the chop sticks and breaking them apart even though he didn’t really have an appetite anymore. His stomach was filled with angry bees of confusion, and he could feel a headache starting to pulse behind his eyes.

Jongdae snorted and shook his head, “You are not. You’re like an adorable, naïve, clueless puppy,” He said, grinning and reaching over to rest a hand on Yixing’s shoulder as a comfort gesture that Yixing sincerely appreciated. Sometimes Jongdae’s touch soothed him like nothing else could, the frazzled nerves seemed to calm a little because Jongdae would always be Jongdae and Minseok would always be more interested in his art projects than his friends. It was security, except when Jongdae’s touch triggered a nervous breakdown as Yixing struggled not to read too much into it.

“If anyone’s a burden, you are Jongdae,” Minseok’s dry comment surprised them both, Yixing hadn’t even realized their friend was listening and Jongdae’s squawk of feigned outrage brought a smile to his lips.

“I bought you lunch!” Jongdae whined, his hand dropping from Yixing’s shoulder and immediately the angry buzzing took up residence in his stomach again. “As my future wife aren’t you supposed to love me?”

“Your future wife, Jongdae?” Minseok asked, slowly setting his sketch pad down and looking at his friend with a raised eyebrow, “When did that happen exactly?”

“New Year’s party last year, you got so wasted it was hilarious. I have the video saved on my phone still!” Jongdae said gleefully, making to pull his phone out of his pocket but Minseok punched him in the arm before he could get it.

“You told me you deleted that!” Minseok exclaimed, looking thoroughly mortified and Yixing couldn’t help the smile that played across his lips as he slowly ate a bite of the kimbap. He remembered that party, it had been Chanyeol’s excuse to stop studying for a little while, the stress of freshman year had been weighing them all down at the time. Yixing had even gotten a little drunk, but it hadn’t taken more than a couple drinks before his friends had started taking them away from him. Apparently they didn’t trust him not to get lost and end up dead in a ditch somewhere if they let him drink too much. Probably a valid fear now that he thought about it.

“Why would I delete precious evidence?” Jongdae cackled, rubbing his slightly sore arm and grinning at Minseok, completely unfazed by his friend’s outraged embarrassment. “You were so cute too, all red faced and swooning my arms.”

“I was drunk!” Minseok exclaimed chagrined as he glared at Jongdae who just doubled over in laughter, smacking the desk with his palm. Minseok looked ready to strangle him and whole scene had Yixing dissolving into poorly concealed giggles, his lunch lying forgotten beside him. The mystery of the photograph still tucked away in his book bag fading from his mind as he lost himself in the mundane and happy little world he had created with his friends.

Minseok’s sketch didn’t end up getting finished; his sketch book had turned into a weapon when Jongdae decided to pull up the video of the New Year’s party. He was going to be nursing a pretty nasty bruise on his head for a few days, and complaining about it for at least a couple of weeks.

Yixing had another class at 1:00 so he cleaned up his barely touched lunch, tossing it into the trash as he called good-bye to his friends and left the room. The Art Building was almost always filled with students meandering about, but today the hallways seemed surprisingly quiet and Yixing was left to ponder his increasingly overwhelming but frustratingly empty thoughts. The anxiety was still pricking at him in the back of his mind, leaving him feeling just as restless and on edge as he had been for a while now.

The sound of footsteps echoing down the hallway slowly registered in Yixing’s muddled brain and he hugged the wall so he wouldn’t be in anyone’s way. He was good at that, auto-pilot reactions to things his conscious mind hadn’t fully acknowledged yet. He was too busy trying to figure out what could be bothering him so much to worry about what was going on around him, so as the footsteps grew closer he thought nothing of it.

As a pair of black shoes, he couldn’t remember the brand, converse maybe, came into view the footsteps didn’t pause or falter, but somehow as Yixing watched them the world seemed to slow down around them. Each second seemed to take the space of five, he felt like he was trying to walk through molasses, even his heart seemed to beat in slow motion.

The smell of chrysanthemum washed over him and just as quickly as it happened time caught up with itself, leaving Yixing stumbling over his own feet trying to catch up with what just happened. His head jerked up in shock and he turned to try to see who he had passed in the hallway, but looking back it was completely empty. No one, and no sign that anyone had ever been there.

Frowning he turned back to continue down the hallway, but his foot slipped as he stepped on something. Taking a half step back he saw a Polaroid photograph lying on the ground where it hadn’t been before. Slowly he crouched down and picked it up, flipping it over and nearly dropping it in shock. It was the boy from the library, and the one from the last photograph. This picture was old, black and white even, and fuzzy, like it had been taken with an unsteady hand. The dark eyed boy was turned away from the camera, his lips were pressed against the cheek of the boy with him who was laughing, and Yixing realized with a cold shock it was another photo of him.

His hands were shaking as he stood back up, whipping around and searching the hallway frantically for whoever had been there. Someone had walked past him, he knew it, he remember the sharp staccato of footsteps, and the black shoes with the white logo he couldn’t place but knew he’d seen people wearing around campus before. Even the smell, the flowery scent of chrysanthemum that brought an almost painful sense of nostalgia rushing through him.

He didn’t understand what was going on, why were these photos showing up all of a sudden and who was the boy with the dark eyes? Why did he seem so familiar? Yixing’s mind was racing with questions and he couldn’t shake the growing sense of unease that tasted too much like fear on his tongue.

He wanted to cry, or hide from the world, but he didn’t know where to go. His family was back in China and his friends, would they even understand? Or would they just chalk it up to him being weird and spacey like usual?

Yixing blinked back the damp heat in his eyes and took a few deep breathes, he needed to get to class. He could try talking to his friends later, maybe Jongdae would listen and have some kind of advice to offer. He seemed to know Yixing better than Yixing himself most days and that thought was comfort enough for Yixing to start moving again.

He didn’t look down for the rest of the walk, paying an uncharacteristic amount of attention to where he was going and every single student that passed by him. Not once in the six minute walk across campus did he catch even a glimpse of the dark eyed boy or the smell of chrysanthemum.

He walked into his biology lecture hall, choosing a seat near the back and settling his things down. He pulled out his laptop and set it on the tiny desk attached to the arm of his chair. He had just opened it up and typed in the password when a heavy thud and a groan alerted him that Chanyeol was apparently not skipping this class today.

“Do you have the notes from Thursday?” He asked without preamble as he seemed to struggle to get his too long limbs to situate comfortably in the small chair. He pulled out a laptop as well and opened it, resting it in his lap instead of bothering with the desk.

“Yes, we went over the cell cycle,” Yixing explained, already pulling up his email address so he could attach the missed notes. Chanyeol skipped almost every Thursday; he claimed it was to spend time with his boyfriend so Yixing always made sure to take more diligent notes on those days.

“Ugh, that sounds super not interesting,” Chanyeol groaned, sighing but cracking a smile almost too big for his face, “You’re awesome though, Xing. Have I ever told you that you’re a life saver?”

Yixing chuckled softly and nodded, “Once or twice,” He said in amusement, sending the email and closing out of the webpage so he could pull up a new word document to take notes on. “Hey, Chanyeol… can I ask you something?”

“Hm? Yeah sure, what’s up?” Chanyeol asked, brilliant grin still in place as he tapped at his keyboard, probably to pull up facebook to talk to the famous boyfriend of his.

Yixing handed over the photograph slowly, it took all his will power not to bite his lip as Chanyeol took it and flipped it over curiously, “What’s this?” He asked, obviously confused as he continued to flip it from side to side.

“A picture,” Yixing supplied unhelpfully, but his small hope was dashed as Chanyeol’s grin faded and he looked at Yixing like he was waiting for the punch line to a joke,

“Okay, I give, what’s it supposed to be a picture of?”

Yixing sighed and shook his head, reaching out to take the photo back and tuck it away with the other one, a quick glance at it told him it was still eerily blank, “I don’t know,” He admitted honestly, zipping up his book bag and trying to figure out if he should see a doctor or something. He just wasn’t sure how to explain that he was seeing strange photographs of himself, and some strange boy with dark eyes that wouldn’t get out of his head. He wasn’t imaging the photos themselves though; both Junmyeon and Chanyeol had been able to physically hold them. So maybe he wasn’t quite so crazy, but it just looked like shades of gray to Yixing, confusing, muddled, scary gray.

The lecture was as droll and drawn out as ever, the teacher seemed to go out of his way to use a completely monotone voice as he spoke and refused to put notes up online. It was a challenge to stay awake, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to pass the four exams they had for this class if he didn’t.

Beside him Chanyeol would occasionally snigger, muffling the laughter behind his palm in an attempt to keep his usual obnoxious volume down. Finally the curiosity got to be too much and Yixing reached out to poke Chanyeol’s arm with his eraser, “What’s so funny?” He asked, grateful for anything that would occupy his mind and keep him from falling asleep even if his notes would suffer for it.

“Hm? Oh, my boyfriend was telling me about a new guy they hired today. Apparently he made a total mess of the place and even showed up late,” Chanyeol explained shaking his head and chuckling.

“Really? Where does your boyfriend work?” Yixing asked, frowning a little bit because that sounded an awful lot like-

“At the main library, third floor-“

“Information desk?” Yixing finished, sighing and looking a bit dejected.

“Yeah, how’d you know?” Chanyeol asked, his brows furrowed in a frown that just looked unnatural on his face. He was one of those people who was born to smile, any other expression just looked wrong.

“Because, I had an interview there today…” Yixing explained, wanting to bury his face in his hands and forget that whole embarrassing episode had never happened, “Wait,” He murmured, lifting his head up and looking at Chanyeol questioningly, “Who is your boyfriend?”

“Byun Baekhyun,” Chanyeol answered proudly, that trademark grin stretching across his face again and somehow seeing it helped Yixing breathe a little easier. As long as Chanyeol could smile like that, nothing could really be wrong with the world, right? It was a soothing logic that he opted not to question, simply letting the small bit of peace he got from it settle him.

“I met him, he didn’t seem to like me very much,” Yixing said with a soft sigh and a small pout. If Baekhyun was dating Chanyeol they were going to be seeing a lot of each other, and Yixing hadn’t exactly made an award winning first impression.

“He doesn’t seem to like anyone very much,” Chanyeol chortled, reaching over and patting Yixing’s shoulder hard enough to send him nearly toppling out of his seat. Chanyeol was always so expressive, sometimes it was a little much but it was an endearing character trait that Yixing could find no fault in, even if his shoulder was sore.

“Not even you?”

“Especially not me.”

“Are you talking to him now?” Yixing asked, a thought occurring to him, and he couldn’t believe he hadn’t thought to ask sooner, but then he remembered who exactly he was and he suddenly wasn’t so surprised by his own empty headedness. “Can you ask him something for me?”

Chanyeol cocked an eyebrow in question but nodded, “Sure, what is it?”

“Someone brought a biology book to the desk while I was being interviewed, could you ask him if he saw who it was?”

Chanyeol looked equal parts confused and suspicious but he didn’t hesitate to start typing furiously at his keyboard, “Why do you want to know? Got your sights set on someone?” He asked with a sly grin as he glanced over at Yixing who felt himself blushing as he furiously shook his head.

“It’s not like that,” He mumbled, wishing he sounded more convincing. He didn’t have his sights set on the dark eyed boy, not romantically at least. He couldn’t even be sure the boy even existed at all outside his own apparently wildly active imagination.

“Hmm, it looks like Baekhyun didn’t see anyone, but apparently whoever dropped it off said to ‘make sure he gets this’.”

“Make sure who gets it?” Yixing asked, confused.

“I don’t know, Baek says he doesn’t know anything more about it,” Chanyeol said a bit apologetically, “I’m sure whoever it was will come back though,” He added with a bit too much cheer in his voice to be totally natural. Yixing could only imagine what kind of face he must have been making for Chanyeol to use that tone with him.

He was sure he wasn’t disappointed, wasn’t he? Did it really matter who had dropped off the book?

“-have to be crazy not to, I mean look at you!” Yixing blinked and looked up at Chanyeol, realizing his friend had still been going with his pep talk and Yixing had completely zoned out. He flushed a little in embarrassment, but Chanyeol seemed to take it differently and wide knowing smile light his features, “I’ll have Baek keep an eye out for the guy, even if he didn’t see him he’ll remember his voice if he shows up again.”

“He d-doesn’t have to do that…” Yixing stuttered, he didn’t want to bother other people but at the same time it would be nice to have someone else helping him. He didn’t have to tell Chanyeol or Baekhyun the real truth. They didn’t have to know about the boy, or the photos, and if he never showed back up again, well maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

Yixing managed to refocus on the lecture after that, calmed enough with the promise of even a little bit of help to manage to write down more notes. Once the lecture was over he bid Chanyeol good bye and thanked him as he packed up his bag, taking care not to crush his notebook again as he slid his laptop inside.

As he walked towards he door he pulled out his phone, tapping in his password and sighing a little as he saw he had three texts from Jongdae. He opened them to read them as he reached the door way, automatically holding it open for the people behind him to file out so he could actually read what Jongdae wrote.

“Thanks,” The voice was deceptively soft, but deep enough to send a pleasant tingle down Yixing’s spine, it was spoke with a soft cadence that reminded him of Junmyeon’s but richer and smoother like butterscotch. Glancing up Yixing’s breath froze in his lungs as his eyes met achingly familiar darkness, such a deep brown they looked black. Hungrily his eyes traveled over the boy’s features, the pale skin, the masculine set of his jaw, even the void expression on his face all of it was so horribly familiar he felt like he knew every pore.

A sharp clatter drew his attention away from the boy and he looked down involuntarily to see his phone lying on the ground, a spider web crack decorating the screen. Jongdae’s text glowing brightly up at him, ‘Yah! I forgot to tell you to pay attention getting to class!’

He bent down to pick the phone up, by the time he straightened and looked around the boy was completely gone, he was alone in the lecture hall still holding the door open. Stepping out into the hallway he looked around again, only to find no sign of the boy at all.

With a frustrated but resigned sigh he looked down at his phone, popping off the case to make sure it wasn’t damaged anywhere else when he noticed something folded in half inside. It was another Polaroid photo.

He picked it up and unfolded it, looking at the black and white photo; it was hard to make out, like the picture had been taken in bad lighting. At first he couldn’t figure out what he was looking at, then he realized it was a picture of two people sleeping, Yixing and the dark eyed boy. Yixing’s head was on his shoulder, and the boy’s cheek rested on his head, they both looked so peaceful like that, and so young.

Yixing felt some unexplainable emotion catch in his chest as he looked over the photograph, trying in vain to find some explanation for everything from the old fashioned photo but it offered him no clues.

“Who are you?” He whispered, tracing the dark eyed boy’s face with a shaky fingertip. “What do you want from me?”

He wished he could make sense of what was going on, he wished he could talk to someone without sounding like he was losing his mind. He wanted the anxiety gnawing at his stomach to go away, the horrible sense of foreboding hung over him like a dark cloud he just couldn’t shake.

“Why can’t you just leave me alone?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N:Chapter 2! I'm going to slowly work on editing it, so if you're one of the first people to read this please bare with my mistakes they will be plentiful I'm sure. I've got a pretty solid idea for a plot now, which is miles better than what I have before, so I hope this was interesting and makes you want to keep reading! I'll try to update when I can, but I've got work and college and I can't make a whole lot of promises ^^;  
> However comments are a huge inspiration to me, so please let me know what you think even if it's just a few words!  
> Thank you all who have left kudos so far I love you guys so much!

**Author's Note:**

> A/N:Chapter 2! I'm going to slowly work on editing it, so if you're one of the first people to read this please bare with my mistakes they will be plentiful I'm sure. I've got a pretty solid idea for a plot now, which is miles better than what I have before, so I hope this was interesting and makes you want to keep reading! I'll try to update when I can, but I've got work and college and I can't make a whole lot of promises ^^;  
> However comments are a huge inspiration to me, so please let me know what you think even if it's just a few words!  
> Thank you all who have subsribed so far I love you guys so much!


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